Hi Andrew,

I posted a build thread here describing a coil winder. As you have the mechanics already you just need a couple of stepper motors and the electronics to drive them. I used an Arduino Uno with a CNC "shield" carrying a couple of DRV8825 stepper driver breakout boards. The Arduino runs GRBL which is a general purpose CNC controller, but it's free and makes life very easy. One can write simple G Code by hand but there's also freeware called Gcoil that will do it for you. For my purposes I load the code on my phone and drive it over Bluetooth from an app called Grbl Controller but you can equally run it from a PC driving via the Arduino serial port. I don't know how much the ELS costs, but you can run GRBL on an Arduino Nano I think, so the total cost of the drivers plus nano is probably ~£30 max.  Then you need a couple of steppers but they don't have to be high spec.

Actually I have the Arduino and stepper drivers in a box that can run either the power X feed and/or a rotary axis on my mill or the winder – somewhere here there's a thread with more details. If this approach is of interest I'm happy to give more details.

John.

Edited By John Haine on 31/08/2021 12:51:55

ancient pre computer coil winders used a heart cam to do the traversing of the carriage, geared to the winding axis. There was a room full of them making 24V transformers for heating controls at a plant I worked at in the 1980's. The machines were originally built (beautifully and heavily) in the late 1930's and were still going strong in the 1980's. The motors driving them were the only electric parts. The winders were stopped when the mechanical coil counter kicked out a clutch on the motor shaft.